“Bradfield tuned their minds into the quiet place where drawing happens.”                           Heidi Van Rijswijk, teacher

Had a really lovely time at TWANGFEST, the inaugural Woodbridge Uke Festival held today at West Winds Community Centre.  Ran my first-ever Blues Uke workshop to a very patient roomful of enthusiasts who did a fantastic job on some 12-bar blues, and finished the afternoon with a really enjoyable performance that thankfully went without a hitch!

If you were at the workshop, or would like to try it for yourself, you can download the BLUES UKE RESOURCE PAGES here!

NEW MUSIC RELEASE: SKIN

Uke takes a backseat in this new collection of original tunes, mostly-instrumental music influenced by my love of African & AfroCuban rhythms.  Danceable organic grooves, hypnotic atmospheres, driven by traditional percussion and a spirit of renewal!  Available only on Bandcamp here: https://bradfielddumpleton.bandcamp.com/

You can also read about the various creative & personal processes that gave birth to this new artefact, listen to some tracks and view some of the album artwork in my blog here: MY INVISIBLE MUSIC CAREER PT 7: SKIN

JAN / FEB 2017 thINK DRAW CONNECT LEARN CREATIVE CARTOONING WORKSHOPS in Hobart were attended by a lovely mix of students intent on exploring new ideas in their drawing.  Workshop experiments included patternmaking, character development, emotional expression, imaginative drawing games and advanced techniques, based around the thINK drawing process.  Check out the Facebook galleries here: FEB 2017

MORE NEWS BELOW!

LIMITED EDITION CD GIFT BOX:

Do you like fingerstyle ukulele and acoustic-based sounds in general?  Do you like diverse musical styles ranging from exotic gypsy jazz, Near Eastern, baroque, rembetika, swing & 20s jazz, tinpan alley, bluegrass, gutterblues and more?   This pack contains 5 CDs spanning the last 10 years of my musical life – original, handcrafted songs & instrumentals , carefully brewed in Tasmania’s deep south and lovingly wrapped in artwork created by myself.  There is a wealth of colourful sounds & unexpected musical pleasures here for the discerning listener.

Find out more here: LIMITED EDITION CD GIFT BOX

NEW MUSIC RELEASES:  PIGBOX & Co., VOL 1 & 2:

Two albums of instrumentals & songs inspired by my metal-bodied resonator ukulele that I affectionately call “Pigbox”.  A ramshackle assortment of gutterblues, loose jazz, americana, folkalisms and lyrical noodlings, accompanied by a variety of other instruments and found sounds.

Read more & listen to some here:

MY INVISIBLE MUSIC CAREER PT 6: PIGBOX & Co

MY VISIBLE ILLUSTRATION CAREER:

Recent blogs that showcase over 10 years of my cartoon illustration work for two of my longest-running clients, music education publishers BUSHFIRE PRESS and Melbourne’s KNOX CITY COUNCIL.  I’ll be adding many more mini-portfolios in the future, with a diverse range of illustration styles.  Meanwhile, take a look:

ILLUSTRATION – BUSHFIRE PRESS    /   ILLUSTRATION – KNOX CITY COUNCIL

 ARTS & HEALTH projects in 2016:

SPEECH PATHOLOGY AUSTRALIA PD DAY:

I had a really lovely time running a professional development day for Speech Pathology Australia in July 2016.  We focused on using cartoon skills for emotional & non-verbal communication, looking at possible applications for people with speech difficulties, stroke recovery, autism and other conditions that restrict their ability to communicate in the ways that most of us take for granted.  There was a diverse range of professionals there, including school speech pathologists, teacher’s aides and health care workers, and they were a wonderfully warm & responsive group. Thanks SPA!

CALVARY HOSPITAL, DEATH CAFE & RELATIONSHIPS AUSTRALIA:

I’ve also been engaged recently as live “visual scribe” for a few fantastic Well-Being focused projects and events, including a 2-Day Relationships Australia conference and a couple of innovative Calvary Hospital initiatives exploring Palliative Care, Death & Dying.  Read the blogs and see the pics here:

Death Cafe: Visual Scribing @ Calvary Hospital 2015

Visual Scribe @ Calvary Palliative Care schools pilot program 2016

Visual Scribe @ Relationships Australia (TAS) Conference, Hobart

AND OTHER NOT-SO-NEWS:

MY INVISIBLE MUSIC CAREER:

Many people only know me as “the cartoon guy” but music is my other creative passion.  Check out my new MUSIC page with recordings &  artwork I’ve been creating over the last decade, or jump to these blogs: Pt 1: Why?, Pt 2: Spondooli Brothers, Pt 3: Solo – the Spondooli Other, Pt 4: Solo – Marzipan, Pt 5: Ukulele!

Also check out this gallery of CD & poster art I created for the Spondooli Brothers back in our heyday.

My Animated Slugbunny Birthday Cake!  (Parts 1 – 3)

A bit of fun making stop-frame animations with my kids, using my birthday cake.

THUNK mini-comic: Original cartoon art by kids

NEW! Part 1 of a series of animations using the thINK process to demonstrate sequential thinking & ways to apply it to the 2-drawing Flipbook method:

 

Here’s a quick visual outline of some programs in 2014 (haven’t had time to update it!):

MAY / JUNE: CYGNET PS (TAS) – “thINK DRAW CONNECT LEARN” 4-DAY RESIDENCY

JUNE: FRIENDS SECONDARY SCHOOL (TAS) – 3-DAY RESIDENCY (YR 7)

JUNE: WESLEY COLLEGE (VIC) – 6-DAY RESIDENCY (YR 7 + PRIMARY)

JUNE: CANBERRA GRAMMAR (ACT) – G.A.T.E.WAYS WEEKEND, GIFTED WORKSHOPS

JULY: GLEN EIRA ADULT LEARNING CENTRE (VIC) – thINK INTENSIVE, HOLIDAY WORKSHOP

JULY: CARNEGIE LIBRARY (VIC) – TOTALLY RANDOM STUFF, HOLIDAY WORKSHOP

JULY: KINGSTON LIBRARY (TAS) – TOTALLY RANDOM / SLUGBUNNY, HOLIDAY WORKSHOPS

JULY: ROWVILLE SECONDARY COLLEGE (VIC) – 5-DAY RESIDENCY, YR 7 – 9

There were several others too, but unfortunately no pics!  So many fantastic kids, hilarious & inspiring moments, brilliant ideas and miles of amazing drawings.  Looking forward to many more soon!

 

Let us not forget the ubiquitous & enigmatic – SLUGBUNNY!  A kind of anti-character rabbit blob who emerged while doing a Comic Strip FX workshop years ago – originally just a fun visual device to help me demonstrate comic strip effects like perspective, backgrounds, proportion etc to a class.  Kind of blank, kind of baffled, but with a mystique, a charisma, that kids seem to find curiously entertaining.  Slugbunny is expressionless, limbless, 2D and motionless, the world just sort of happens around him, and creates the illusion that he is the one moving through space.

SLUGBUNNY has generated a small but passionate cult following among students, so I figured he deserved a mini-comic of his own.

You can buy copies of THUNK #1 – 4 or SLUGBUNNY #1 by emailing me or in person at a workshop!

My primary work (for over 20 years) is actually workshops & specialised residency programs in schools, so feel free to pass on my details (and your testimonials!)  to your principal or relevant teacher.

OLD NEWS:

APRIL HOLIDAY WORKSHOPS, HOBART – Apr 29 – May 2.  Totally Random Stuff, Cartooning Intensives: Clothes, and Return Of Slugbunny.  Lots of pics here and here!

APRIL HOLIDAY WORKSHOPS, MELBOURNE – Apr 7 – 10.  Kamikaze Cartooning for 8 yr-olds plus 3 x Cartooning Intensives: Gross’N’Ghoully, Comic Strip Lab and Human Zoo.  Full gallery here!

TOTALLY RANDOM STUFF WORKSHOPS, MELBOURNE – Feb 8 & Mar 8.  Random cartooning nonsense for kids (educational of course!) at the Glen Eira Adult Learning Centre, Ormond.  Check out February gallery and March gallery!

KNOX SOCIAL & COMMUNITY HEALTH / PEER SUPPORT SERVICES / PROJECT HOPE – Melbourne, Feb 8 & Mar 8, two fantastic adult workshops with men & women living with addiction recovery & mental illness.  Project Hope aims to enable these people to document stories of their experiences and break down the stigma in the community around addiction & related problems.  As a part of the Project, my two workshops contributed expressive drawing skills to help the group illustrate their personal stories.

CARTOON INTENSIVES / JAN HOLS – more amazing kids cartoons at the Facebook gallery including themes: Gross’n’Ghoully, Critters & Beasties, Creative Comic Strips.

CHALK IT! @ Elizabeth Mall DEC 16 & 17 / Check out the Facebook gallery to see what we created!

TASTE OF TAS FESTIVAL – Kids In The Park Tent   DEC 28 & JAN 2 / Check out the Facebook gallery to see what we created!